Tuesday 4 April 2017

Lockers For Hire

Four months since our last report on the lockers, a hiring scheme for lockers has been introduced, with access to them being granted "during [the] first PSHCE lesson of the summer term". 

Via a letter, the Head's natural mode of communication, various policies and stipulations to locker usage are outlined. The hiring fee is £5.00 for for Summer Term 2017, and will be £15.00 for a whole school year. Parents (and guardians) are directed to Hampstead's trendy online payment service, ParentPay, where their hard-earned Dollars Euros Pounds can go towards "purchas[ing] more" lockers.

The first rule outlined in Hampstead's locker policy is that "all lockers remain the property of the school at all times and can be accessed at any time by the school, should the need arise". That means keep your weed, knives and guns somewhere else. The same goes for cookies, donuts and other items of confectionery: the SLT do get hungry.

Lockers are also "not accessible during lessons, except to Sixth Form students". Naturally no real explanation is given for this or any of the policies outlined, but this policy is likely included in an attempt to prevent all the Year 8s from dossing about every lesson of the day.

It is also stated that "Any damage must be reported to the Head of Year.  Cost of repairs will be levied on the hirer, unless it is clear that damage has been caused by a third party". We're not sure what happened to whoever wrote that while they were writing it, but we hope they're okay now. Grammar aside, this rule is slightly suspect. The policy places responsibility by default onto the owners of a locker, and regardless of whether or not that is right, it isn't always possible to demonstrate the guilt of a third party, especially when they may not be known, and "clear" could mean effectively anything an administrator wished it to mean.

While we do sincerely hope the lockers actually function as intended, the school accepts "no responsibility" for the loss of or damage to belongings stored in the lockers, leaving it unclear who would be responsible in the case of an inadvertent mechanical failure.

Owing to shortages, the lockers are only available to some, yet the policy states that "students may not store items for other students". Of course it is difficult to foster a cutthroat ultra-competitive academic environment when you have students helping their friends who haven't been able to get lockers should the need arise, but it probably says something somewhere about cooperation and community on one of trillions of Hampstead's propaganda items...



To read our November 2016 article on the lockers, click here.


1 comment:

  1. Bloody paigons , what's the need for a bloody locker if you can't use it ? 😂😂
    It's just an excuse to get our money with nothing in return . I say we go back to the old days , and stick all our books up our arses so that we don't need to pay for something that should be free (where's all the money they get from the government etc going to ) plus it'll show our rebellious streak against the system , this type of oppression shouldn't go on much longer.

    ReplyDelete

DON'T GET OVERLY GASSED.